Let's suppose that there is a group of girlscouts who spend their morning in front of the local pancake house and sell 240 boxes of cookies, without eating any out of respect for the girls with food allergies and it's noon and everybody is starving---what do you feed them?

A big ol' pot of nitrates and beans.

It's only fair.

And you will be their hero.

And be offered a patch. Which you will graciously decline, but secretly wonder what a "best bean maker" patch would look like...

The Ingredients:

--1 pound of dry kidney beans (I was fancy and used dry beans--PLEASE see note below!. If you are crunched for time, this would work fine with 4 cans)

--4 cups of your favorite barbecue sauce

--2 packages of Lil' Smokies, or cut up hotdogs

The Directions:

--wash and sort kidney beans the night before--in the morning, drain and put into a large pot with enough water to cover with an additional 2 inches. Cover, and bring to a boil. Boil briskly for at least 10 minutes before draining, rinsing in cold water, and adding to the crockpot.

--cover parboiled beans with enough water to cover another 2 inches

--cook in your crockpot on low for 7-10 hours (these cooked for 9 and were a bit mushy. No one seemed to mind but me. I felt like they should have been prettier.)

--drain and rinse the kidney beans

--cover with bbq sauce and plop in your hotdogs or smokies

cook on low for 4-5 hours, or high for 2-3. Everything is cooked already, so it's just a matter of heating through. If your hotdogs or smokies are still frozen it will take longer.

(gee, thanks for that tidbit of wisdom, steph..)

IMPORTANT NOTE!! PLEASE READ!: Kidney beans have a toxin in them and need to be parboiled before using. Please do your research!

The Verdict.

Surprise, surprise, these were a huge hit. My three-year-old told me that these were the best beans she's ever had and thanked me a few too many times.

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18 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Is there anything better then knowing at 8 am that dinner is in the crockpot and you don't have to think about it again? It is better then...dare I say it... knitting! Tonight it's taco soup (original, even tho I started to make the other by mistake!). Last night it was chicken and eggplant parm. The chicken was fabulous, the eggplant fair (too mushy). Next time I'll add the eggplant later in the cooking.L

Amen on the bean song! My hubby is the instigator on this one. That looks so warm and cozy as I sit here freezing in my house. (It'll get up to 80+ today, so I'm enjoying the cool almost-too-cool morning with all the windows open)

Ok I just found your site and I have to say I am in love!!! I love my crock pot too! I am a working mom who is usually pressed for time so the Crock pot is my lifeline, matter of fact I made 2 things this weekend. Turkey Chili and Chocolate delight! I will be back trust me!

FYI: I saw some lil' smokies at Costco that were nitrate free. This is a big deal to me since my son is sensitive to them! I don't actually shop at Costco, I was just there with a friend, so I don't know if they still have them but I did see them once upon a time :)

Can you tell me if you can cook just regular hotdogs in the crockpot? We are having a carnival and don't want to grill 200 hotdogs, I thought maybe the crockpot with some water might be a good way to cook a lot of hotdogs at one time.

Jayna, yes. You can totally cook hotdogs in a crockpot. They are already cooked as it is---it's pretty much bologna in a long squishy shape. I would fill the entire crock with hot dogs, and add water to cover them. You don't actually need all that much water to heat them through, but the water will keep them from drying out and will give the dogs the "steamed" look.

I absolutely cannot wait to try this! My Grandpa (R.I.P.) made something similar top this with the lil smokies and sauce (no beans) and this makes me think of all those great memories with him! Thank You =)

It's not a dumb question! We love Bush's baked beans. Yes, go ahead--- there's really no cooking that needs to be done, then. Just dump in the can and the smokies and cook on low for 3 hours or on high for about 90 minutes, or until it's hot and bubbly.

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